That experience comes wrapped inside a considered, cohesive presentation. Human Revolution takes cues from futuristic cyberpunk fiction, but it finds an identity in the past. The color palate eschews the blues of more pedestrian depictions of the future for a look that borrows from European painters like Titian and Rembrandt. There are visual references to the Italian Renaissance everywhere - from architecture, to fashion and body armor, and to the ornate construction of augments themselves.

These artificial limbs don't look manufactured; they seem wrought by blacksmiths and artisans, crafted like the clockwork machina of the Renaissance and the Enlightenment. There's so much care and consideration obvious in Human Revolution's look and style and execution that it's easy to forgive some of the game's genuinely uglier spots – see many of its less important NPCs and their botox faces, and a spotty framerate here and there, for example. You'll even pardon some occasionally stiff voice acting and awkward moments in the script amidst a phenomenal soundtrack.

Exit Theatre Mode

It's rare to see so much intention in a game. There's a striking unity of vision in Human Revolution that pulls you in. It keeps the story together and moving even as it pushes at the edges of plausibility at times, and it doesn't feel like any plot has gone missing or become a casualty to the inexorable push to ship the game on time. This is especially impressive given Deus Ex: Human Revolution's length; meticulous players determined to find everything, to hack every terminal and pry out every secret, might spend as much as 40-45 hours on their initial playthrough.

In fact, the promises of freewill and experimental play that Human Revolution makes and keeps, and the palpable illusion of choice and consequence—call its shortcomings into glaring contrast, making objectivity difficult during the few instances where true player influence break down. While the gameplay maintains flexibility throughout, some major plot decisions are made for you, via cutscene and the like. And the "bosses," such as they are, yield comparatively disappointing and 'gamey' results, save one possible moment of turnabout late in the game.

The free-form approach found everywhere else gets winnowed down to murder alone here. While you can experiment with the best ways to bring these augmented killers down, these points always signal the brief but blatant removal of your free will, an unexpected turn from the same game that allows you to make your way through the entire affair without killing anyone else, ever - except for those bosses. Even if you might want to let them live. There's no room for subterfuge, no room for mercy, and no margin for deviation from a very straight line story-wise.

Other games do this as well. But few games encourage and reinforce creative problem solving and the importance of your own moral compass the way that Human Revolution does. To see that cast aside means little from a pure gameplay perspective. But as an experience, Human Revolution suffers more than any game I can think of because of it.

Is it fair to punish Human Revolution holistically because of its inability to deliver on the logical progression of its promise? Probably not. But as the credits rolled, I contemplated that as much as I did the human existence-altering options I had to choose from along the way.

The Verdict

While Deus Ex: Human Revolution can't be the revelation that Deus Ex was in 2000, it's an achievement nonetheless. It's a visionary, considered piece of work, and while my thoughts drift to the things that could have been and the compromises made due to the possibilities of video games in 2011, they're just as quick to consider playing through it again. Human Revolution is a smart, rewarding piece of transhumanist noir that does justice not just to Deus Ex, but to the fiction that inspired it.

8.5PresentationHuman Revolution's interface is well-integrated and unobtrusive, but the waypoint system leaves something to be desired. The story holds together well though, and moves along without stumbling.

8.5GraphicsFrom a technological standpoint, Human Revolution isn't doing anything special graphically. But it has some of the best production design and art of any game this year. Or last year.